The American Studies Program at Fordham University is a small and selective interdisciplinary honors major. To gain insight into the multiplicity of cultures, ideas and institutions that make up the nation, students take courses in departments and programs such as African and African American studies, American Catholic Studies, Art History and Music, English, History, Latin American and Latino Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Urban Studies, and Sociology. They also take a sequence of three interdisciplinary American Studies courses, culminating in the Fall of the Senior year with a seminar in which they write a thesis and present it publicly. The Senior Seminar has a different theme each year, though students are not required to shape their theses to fit that theme.
The American Studies class of 2011 took their Senior Seminar in the Fall of 2010. It was taught by Professors Edward Cahill (English) and Amy Aronson (Communication and Media Studies) with the theme "Print, Publics, and Culture. Students’ research was presented on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 in the O'Hare Special Collections Room, Walsh Family Library, Fordham University.
To view an abstract, select the title of the thesis; to download an entire paper, click on the PDF icon.
Class of 2012 Senior Theses
“I Ran My Fingers Through Her Coal Black Hair to Cover Up My Sin” : Violence, Gender and Faith in 19th Century Appalachian Murdered Girl Ballads, Ariadne Blayde
Sand, Sun, and Sex Tourism: What Really Happens During College Spring Break, Melissa Lee Brumer
“Fast Food for the Filipino Soul”: Consuming Identity at Jollibee in Queens, Rebecca Gehman
Sistas in Sisterhood: Black Cultural Clubs in All Girls Private High Schools, Rachel Victoria Jones
An Important Year: Competing Images of Womanhood in the Ladies’ Home Journal, 1919, Eva Krupitsky
The New Media Deal: Obama, the Information Age, and the Shadow of FDR, Grace Loughney
The Cross-Bronx Double Cross: How the Cross-Bronx Expressway has Affected Pediatric Asthma in the Bronx, Catherine McNamara
From Clayton Bigsby to Stuart Hall: Conceptions of Blackness and Authenticity in Chappelle’s Show, Andrew O'Connell
“Maybe It Was Too Much to Expect in Those Days”: The Changing Lifestyles of Barnard’s First Female Students, Jennifer Prevete
Dramatizing Oppenheimer and Reagan: Theatricality and American Historical Memory, Sarah J. Rogers
Tending the Flowers, Cultivating Community: Gardening on New York City Public Housing Sites, Lauren Sepanski
“Inspired by our Feminist Foremothers”: Feminists For Life’s Appropriation Of First-Wave Feminist Rhetoric And History, Emily Tuttle
Fun, Fearless, Feminist?: Gender and Sexuality In Cosmopolitan, Gabriella Wilkins
Class of 2011 Senior Theses
Neighborhood Blogging: How Localized Websites are Redefining Community, Maryanne Engelbrecht
Peter the Nurse and Teresa the Politician: Exploring Gender Norms and Discrimination in the Workplace, Alex Filippo
Beauty and the Barbie Doll: When Life Imitates Plastic, Alexandra Gaudio
Feminizing Presidents: Joseph Keppler and Gender in Gilded Age Political Cartoons, Jerome Gonzalez
Download This: Artist Development and Interconnectivity in the Internet Age, Geoffrey Johnson
So You Think You Know Dance?: Popular Dance and Cultural Identity on Television, Eleni Koutroumanis
Engendering Injustice: Drug Laws, Drug Economies, and the Marginalization of Women in New York State, Kate McGee
Sectarianism and Citizenship: Church and State Debates in Nineteenth Century New York, Sean McGonigle
Imperial Domesticity: Native American Gender Ideology and Conformity in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Christina Moehrle
Performing Femininity: Rae Bourbon and Christine Jorgensen Onstage, Taylor Riccio
From American Bandstand to Total Request Live: Teen Culture and Identity on Music Television, Kaylyn Toale
Beyond the Storefronts, Justin Wright
